


Across an Empty Gas Station

by Pegasus_Eridana



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, And no monsters, First Meeting, Fluff, M/M, Sugar Addict!Gabriel, Tumblr made me do it, mechanic!Dean, teacher!Castiel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-22
Updated: 2014-06-22
Packaged: 2018-02-05 18:45:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1828385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pegasus_Eridana/pseuds/Pegasus_Eridana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gabriel and Castiel are in a gas station, and something (or a couple of someones) end up catching their attention.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Across an Empty Gas Station

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ismene_Jane](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ismene_Jane/gifts).



> So there's this gif going round on tumblr at the moment http://ijustwanttohugdavidtennant.tumblr.com/post/89019815960/karlimeaghan-supernatural-destiel-sabriel-au  
> and I decided to write a little thing for the wondrous Ismene_Jane. Of course, once I decided to write it I couldn't find the gifset, so the dialogue is a little different, but it was still very much the inspiration for this fic. 
> 
> Edited, as always, by Ismene_Jane because she is glorious and is happy to edit her own gifts, for which I am extremely grateful. 
> 
> Enjoy!

It happened at a small gas station on the outskirts of Lawrence, Kansas. Gabriel was the absolute worst, with the worst ideas and the worst taste. Lord knows why, twenty minutes away from home, he had been seized with the need for something to eat, but Castiel had learned long ago not to get in between his brother and his brother’s stomach.

Castiel wandered around the aisles, absentmindedly picking things up, looking at them for a moment, then returning them neatly to the shelf. Occasionally he would find something in the wrong place: for instance, a packet of twinkies amongst the jerky, or a toothbrush hiding in-between the stacked bottles of water. Each time, he would stop on his systematic tour of the gas station in order to return the stray item to its rightful place.

Gabriel, on the other hand, was whirling around the small shop with the express purpose, it seemed, of gathering all the most sugary and processed foodstuffs he could lay his hands on. Castiel didn’t really understand the reasoning behind this stock-up as they were almost home (thank God) but by now he knew better than to question his elder brother’s dependence on additives and artificial flavourings.

Castiel, in contrast to Gabriel’s high (and most likely sugar-related) levels of energy, was exhausted from a whole day on the road travelling back home from a rather tense visit to their parents. Not that he didn’t love them, but Mother insisted upon knowing every tiny detail of his life and Gabe was entirely unhelpful in those situations, making cracks about Castiel’s lack of a love life which made Mother worry that her baby boy was lonely, which was certainly not the case. Castiel had a fulfilling job teaching English at the local high school and even had a few friends. He was perfectly content. If he experienced the occasional pang at seeing Michael and Lucifer and their wives at family reunions with their happy, beautiful children, well that was only natural for someone who wanted love and children to feature at some point in their future life. It didn’t mean that Castiel wasn’t perfectly content in the here and now.

He was so busy reflecting on the past few days, that he didn’t notice that Gabe was right behind him until his brother hissed,

“Psst, Cassie! Check out that sexy hunk of man-candy over there!”

Castiel obediently looked up, and saw in his eye-line a tall man with light brown hair, freckles, and the most incredible green eyes Castiel had ever seen. His heart gave a stutter; he’d not seen such a beautiful creature for years, if ever, and he had to fight the rather unnerving compulsion to just go over there and introduce himself before attaching himself to the man and never letting go. That would be inappropriate, however, and Castiel had no wish to be teased by Gabriel, so instead he replied, as neutrally as possible,

“Yes, he does seem to be very aesthetically pleasing.”

Gabe huffed in annoyance.

“Not the pretty boy male model over there, Cassie, I meant the magnificent sasquatch over thataway.” Without waiting for a reply, the shorter man grabbed Castiel’s chin and turned his head until he saw a very tall man with long brown hair and a slightly uncomfortably expression on his face. The man was certainly pleasing to look at, but, in Castiel’s opinion, nothing compared to the first Greek god of a specimen.

The tall man shot a slightly awkward-looking smile in the brothers’ direction before striding over to the man Castiel had been admiring. Perhaps they were partners, thought Castiel, a little despondently. They certainly would make a striking couple, and in all honesty it was extremely unlikely that someone as attractive as the green-eyed man would be single or interested in a nondescript high school teacher with a large amount of social awkwardness and not much of anything else.

His thoughts were interrupted this time not by Gabe, but by the tall man muttering to the green-eyed man, and Castiel realised with a stab of embarrassment that even low-spoken words travelled loud and clear in the small, quiet gas station.

“Dean? D’you think they know that we can hear them?” Castiel closed his eyes in mortification. Hopefully the two men would not be too offended by the attention paid to them by Castiel and Gabe and they could all finish their shopping in awkward silence and then never see each other again. Although Castiel knew that in his case, the stunning “Dean” would most likely be popping up in the odd fantasy.

“Dunno, Sammy.” Dean replied. “But the gorgeous blue-eyed one thinks I’m cute, so I don’t care.”

Well. That was rather a lot to take in. Castiel was the only blue-eyed person in the shop (at least, the teenager at the register looked like she was asleep, so Castiel felt he could count her out), but _gorgeous_? Castiel had never been called that in his life, and certainly not by an Adonis with a voice that was the auditory embodiment of pure, gruff, sexy manliness. Perhaps it was this _Dean’s_ way of getting revenge on Castiel’s previous accidental rudeness. It was never nice to be talked about and objectified.

Except Castiel really didn’t mind when Dean did it.

He must have got lost in his thoughts again, because the next thing he knew Gabe had disappeared and his place had been taken by Dean, who was… _smiling_ at Castiel.

“Hi there,” that voice purred.

“H-hello, Dean,” stuttered Castiel, cursing himself internally for his awkwardness. The cursing intensified as Dean looked suspicious and rather taken aback.

“Ho-how do you know my name? We haven’t met before, have we?”

“No,” said Castiel quickly. “My apologies, I heard your companion say your name a moment ago and it did not occur to me to pretend not to have heard. I am often told that my social skills leave much to be desired.”

“Nah, don’t sweat it, it’s kinda cute,” replied Dean, cocky grin fully back on his face. “So, you heard what I said, then?”

“Y-yes I did, although I don’t really-”

“Oh jeez, have I made you uncomfortable? Shit, I’m so sorry man, I must have totally misheard what you said about me-”

“You didn’t, Dean.” Castiel hastily interrupted. “I just…I wasn’t sure that you _could_ be talking about me, and I thought that maybe you just wanted to exact revenge upon me for speaking about you the way I did.”

Dean let out a laugh, and Castiel thought privately that it was one of the most beautiful sights he had ever seen.

“Dude, have you actually seen yourself? Damn right, I was talking about you!” He stepped closer, and Castiel felt himself automatically swaying towards Dean, inexorably as a flower is drawn towards the sun, needing to bask in the heat and the life-giving energy. Dean tentatively raised a hand and brushed it along Castiel’s elbow. Castiel shuddered slightly at the touch, craving more.

“So, do you think-” began Dean, but before he could continue he was interrupted by Gabe, who came up to them with a slightly bemused-but-charmed-looking Sammy behind him.

“Cassie! So, Sammy here-”

“ _Sam_ ,” corrected the taller man in the tone of fond exasperation with which people usually addressed Gabriel.

“As I was saying, Sammy here’s offered us a ride back to Lawrence, ‘cause he and his bro live there, too.” Castiel furrowed his brow, confused.

“But, Gabriel, we have our own-”

“It’s just such a relief,” ploughed on Gabriel, giving Castiel a pointed look, “because you know I wasn’t comfortable driving any further while our car was making those _strange noises_ so this way we can make it home in one piece, and Sammy tells me that Deano here is a mechanic, so maybe you can bring him back here tomorrow to take a look at the car.”

Utterly floored by his brother’s brazenness, Castiel could only nod mutely and hope fervently that Dean and Sam, by some miracle, wouldn’t see through and be offended by Gabe’s paper-thin excuse.

“Great!” crowed Gabe, grabbing Sam’s hand and dragging him out of the shop, sweets forgotten. Castiel and Dean followed at a more sedate pace, shoulders brushing against each other as if both of them needed to be as close together as possibly without really knowing why.

“So,” said Dean. “Seeing as we’re gonna be spending lots of time together, think I can get a name to put to the handsome face?”

Castiel blushed, but managed to stutter out his name. Then the rest of what Dean had said sunk in.

“We…you want to spend more time with me?” he asked, nervous yet impatient for the answer. Dean stopped walking and turned to look at Castiel.

“Well, let me see,” he said, tapping his chin. “You’re one of the most gorgeous people of either gender that I’ve ever seen, you’re all kinds of adorable when you get all blushy and awkward, you seem to like me too, and I just…” his teasing tone dropped and his voice took on something more serious, that sounded almost vulnerable in the way that he needed Castiel to understand, to feel the same way. “I just feel this…this _pull_ towards you and I think we’d be stupid to ignore it.”

Castiel smiled.

“I feel the same way.”

Dean let out a big relieved breath and started walking again, but not before taking Castiel’s hand in his own calloused, warm one.

As they walked towards the shining black car that Dean introduced as “Baby,” Castiel reflected that perhaps Gabe wasn’t the _absolute_ worst. And that his plots and ideas weren’t _always_ terrible.

***

And three years later, at Castiel and Dean’s wedding, even though by that point Sam had somehow persuaded him to at least one salad a week, Gabriel and his insatiable need for a gas station stop for sweets even got a special mention.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and feedback gives me life, just so's you know. 
> 
> Feel free to come and hang out on tumblr/fangirl with me/request short fics. You can find me at http://www.heckamightygadzooks.tumblr.com


End file.
